From the kitchen to the racetrack and back again

lemon

Outside in my mini herb garden I have some lovely tarragon plants (and a lot of mint but that is another story!) so to use it up we bought some fresh salmon and decided to bake it with butter, lemon and lime before serving salmon with tarragon cream.

Get the oven on to warm up, Gas Mark 7 – 220C or 425F. The potatoes take longest plus they can be kept warm in the oven so the first task is to boil these. I use a hob to oven skillet to minimise the washing up. Any products I link to on Amazon are ones I own and use myself. This skillet is one of my most used pieces of kitchen equipment. Continue reading →

Like this:

I’ve been guilty of not blogging much recently. A combination of being ill (less cooking as no appetite) and being busy mean I’ve just not sat down for any length of time. The New Year means a new job and hopefully a bit more time both for myself and with my little family. It will also mean more time to cook and all the things I’ve missed out on recently like baking bread.

Not that long ago I cooked Chicken with Lemon and Caper butter and decided to try a similar Chicken Piccata recipe. I tried it recently and really enjoyed it although it was super tangy (probably too much so for the Other Half’s taste) so this is on the ‘fiddle and improve’ recipe list.

First of all bash the chicken breasts until they are about 2cm thick, you can bash them thinner and reduce the coming time if you prefer. Melt half the butter in the olive oil in a large frying pan, whilst the butter is melting, dredge the chicken in flour (season with salt and pepper to taste) and add to the frying pan. On a medium heat cook the chicken for about 7 minutes a side, making sure they are nicely browned. Once cooked, remove from pan and keep warm.

Turn up the heat and add the lemon juice, wine and capers (Tip: part of the ‘fiddle’ will be adding the wine on its own first and letting it reduce once I’ve deglazed the pan) scraping up any brown bits from the fried chicken. Reduce the heat and return the chicken to the pan for 5 minutes.

Again remove the chicken and whisk the remaining butter into the sauce. Add chopped parsley and pour over the chicken.

First of all butterfly the chicken by slicing the breast until almost through, then get rid of your aggression by beating it with a rolling pin or meat tenderiser until about a centimetre thick. Put some flour (with salt and pepper) on a plate and then dip the chicken so it is coated on both sides.

Fry the chicken in olive oil for about 4 minutes each side, depending on thickness, until done and slightly browned. Keep warm until ready to serve.

I used the same pan to cook the sauce, which is why it ended up a little brown but we did get the extra flavour from the cooked flour and chicken juices. Heat one cube of butter and then gently fry the onion so softened but not browned. Add the garlic and cook for about a minute. Add the wine and then the lemon juice and boil until reduced to around 2 tablespoons. Stir in the capers.

Put the pan on the lowest heat possible and then whisk in the butter, one cube at a time allowing each to be fully incorporated before adding the next.

The original recipe is here. I served this with mini parmesan roasted potatoes and green beans.

This was a tasty dish and although the sauce was very tart on its own, it was great with the chicken. I’m going to try another Pintrest recipe that’s very similar soon, this one is called piccata.